White House tries to charm Democrats on new NAFTA

By SABRINA RODRIGUEZ and ANDREW RESTUCCIA03/07/2019 05:04 AM ESTThe White House is engineering an unusually by-the-book approach for selling Congress on the replacement deal for NAFTA — with the hope of persuading Speaker Nancy Pelosi to hold a vote for the new trade agreement.Administration officials have been organizing dozens of meetings with rank-and-file lawmakers to try to build bipartisan support for the deal, which restructures trade terms with Canada and Mexico. Plus, Democrats and GOP lawmakers alike are telling the president they won’t consider the deal until he lifts lingering tariffs on steel and aluminum from Mexico and Canada.“Look, it’s going to be very hard to do this,” said Rep. Richard Neal, chairman of the influential House Ways and Means Committee.With few legislative options on the horizon, passing the new pact has taken an outsize importance for the administration, especially as Trump hones his reelection message. Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, is taking the lead in the White House and Deputy U.S. Trade Representative C.J. Mahoney is the point person at USTR, with Robert Lighthizer, the administration’s lead trade negotiator, regularly meeting with lawmakers about the issue.The strategy stands in stark contrast with many of the administration’s previous dealings with Capitol Hill, from the failed effort to repeal Obamacare to the tense negotiations over last year’s $1.3 trillion spending bill. By DOUG PALMER and ADAM BEHSUDIMeanwhile, Pelosi is monitoring Democratic concerns, congressional aides say.The House speaker has echoed some of the prevailing objections, saying earlier this month that “the overarching issue is enforcement.” She also indicated that she has “always thought this was probably one of the easier trade agreements to come to agreement on, but, so far, we're not there yet.” A spokesman for Pelosi said those comments are “still the best articulation of where she is on USMCA.”Some House Democrats told POLITICO that they believe Pelosi and the party are open-minded about the deal, but that they won’t rush to deliver a win for the administration without their input. Lighthizer personally conducted a round of meetings on the Hill last week and has plans to brief more lawmakers in the coming weeks.At the same time, the White House, led by the public liaison and intergovernmental affairs offices, is trying to build support in states and key congressional districts, briefing local officials and governors on the details of the agreement.